A CANBERRA couple has announced their intention to divorce if gay people are allowed to get married too. Nick Jensen, who posed with his wife Sarah on the cover of the latest issue of Canberra CityNews, writes of the Christian couple’s decision to end their marriage under the headline, “Gay law change may force us to divorce”…. Mr Jensen goes on to explain the divorce plan, where the pair will continue to live together, have more kids, and refer to each other as husband and wife, but will legally end their marriage because they believe “marriage is not a human invention”…. “Our view is that marriage is a fundamental order of creation. Part of God’s human history. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman before a community in the sight of God. And marriage of any couple is important to God regardless of whether that couple recognises God’s involvement or authority in it,” he writes. In the piece, Jensen describes the intervention of the state into marriage as “odd”, and says he and his wife refuse to recognise the government’s regulation of marriage if its definition includes same sex couples.
I acknowledge, support, and sometimes even celebrate the right of an individual to their opinion. It may be unpopular and it may even be hurtful and offensive to some, but it’s the old joke about how opinions are like assholes- everybody has one, right? Or was it everybody IS one?? It so hard to keep these things straight sometimes. Especially in the case of Nick and Sarah Jensen, who believe same-sex marriage to be so wrong that they’d legally dissolve their own marriage if it becomes legal. In a free country, that’s their prerogative. I may think them to be arrogant, intolerant, homophobic and just plain wrong (and they are), but who am I to deny them their right to live and choose as they see fit (as much as I might be tempted otherwise)? I respect the Jensen’s right to their choices even as I deplore their Neanderthal intolerance of something that doesn’t happen to dovetail with their intolerance and prejudice.
I do find it interesting that Nick Jensen deplores “the intervention of the state into marriage as “odd”,” even as he refuse to recognize the fact that government is inextricably involved in “traditional” marriage. The benefits (taxes, insurance, hospital visitation rights, end of life decisions, etc.) that accrue to married heterosexual couples are there because of the involvement of government. To claim marriage to be “not a human invention” is as wrong as it myopic. Marriage if fundamentally a legal construct designed to define and enumerate benefits and responsibilities. Laws pertaining to marriage define property rights, inheritance rights, and any number of other legal and social issues. Because society has a vested interest in fostering and nurturing stable long-term relationships, marriage is absolutely a function of the state. If not for the legal framework that defines marriage, protecting the rights and defining the responsibilities of those who make that commitment, there would be little reason for the institution to exist.
Marriage is many things to many people, but at it’s most basic it’s about protecting rights and defining responsibilities. To ignore government’s central role in this is to willfully blind oneself to the truth.
Of course, if the Jensens choose to live in their myopic, homophobic, intolerant world, that’s on them. The truly sad thing is that they’re undoubtedly passing those (not so very) admirable qualities on to their children….but it’s done in Jesus’ name, so it’s all good, right??
Then again, what if same-sex couples just didn’t give a damn if the Jensens (or anyone else) decide to divorce if/when marriage equality becomes law? Outside of being a cheap publicity stunt, Jensen’s threat to divorce is meaningless, a hollow gesture that will mean nothing to anyone except themselves. If it give the Jensens casue to feel as if they’re standing up for something, so be it. I have a feeling the rest of us will just be laughing at them.
